CompTIA Cloud+ (CV0-004)DevOps FundamentalsMedium

A company wants to release a new checkout feature to only 5% of production users first, closely monitor error rates and performance, and gradually increase exposure if metrics remain healthy. Which deployment strategy best describes this approach?

  1. ABlue-green deployment
  2. BCanary deployment
  3. CRolling deployment
  4. DRecreate deployment
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Canary deployment

Canary deployment gradually rolls out a change to a small subset of users, monitoring for issues before expanding to the full user base. This limits the blast radius of a faulty release compared to full cutovers.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. Blue-green deployment switches all traffic at once between two full environments, not a gradual percentage rollout.
  • C. Rolling deployment replaces server instances incrementally but doesn't specifically target a percentage of user traffic for monitoring.
  • D. Recreate deployment stops the old version entirely before starting the new one, causing downtime for all users.

Canary Deployment

A release strategy that exposes a new version to a small subset of users first, expanding gradually as confidence in stability grows.

  • Named after canaries used to detect danger in mines
  • Limits impact of bugs to a small user group
  • Metrics/monitoring drive expansion decisions

Memory trick: The canary in the coal mine tests the air before everyone goes in.

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